The Rise is located close to the southernmost point of the Otago Harbour immediately to the west of the Andersons Bay Inlet.

Another outcrop, geologically part of the same formation, lies several hundred metres to the east, and has been extensively quarried.

The rise lends its name to the suburb's main street, Musselburgh Rise (differentiated in name from the outcrop by always being written without the definite article), which connects with the southern end of Andersons Bay Road and skirts the southern flank of the outcrop.

This shopping area and the southern flank of the Rise is sometimes considered a separate suburb, Sunshine, which was at one time known as Goat Hill.

This road joins with the southern end of Portsmouth Drive close to the northeastern point of the rise, and continues across the causeway at Andersons Bay Inlet, though the junction is a limited one, and traffic may not turn right from the Musselburgh part of Portsmouth Drive to continue across the causeway.

[5] A branch railway ran along Portobello Road in this area from the 1870s until 1912, and rail links continued to the suburb until the track were lifted in 1928.

Other surrounding suburbs include Andersons Bay in the east, Tahuna in the southeast, and Tainui in the south.

Sidney Neill's widow lived at Belmont until the late 1950s when the large house was sold, divided and the property broken up into separate sections.